“Hello friends, and welcome to another video.” Okay, this obviously isn’t a video, but I couldn’t resist using her iconic introduction to start this out. Welcome to an article about the popular YouTuber Safiya Nygaard. If you are a frequent visitor of Buzzfeed, you may recognize her from some past content. She was on BuzzfeedYellow from 2015 to 2017, where she notably co-created and cofounded the “Ladylike” series.
Nygaard eventually left Buzzfeed and created the YouTube channel that bears her name. Her channel is a combination of fashion, beauty and other content that leaves you wanting to subscribe to see even more. The beauty of Nygaard’s channel is the entertainingly chaotic nature of her videos, her unnecessarily and hilariously detailed vocabulary and the overall ingenuity Nygaard possesses.
Her videos have a lot of production value, from the content to the editing to the person herself, making her an arguably close to perfect YouTuber. Nygaard stands out among the rest of the YouTube crowd for good reason, and if you haven’t done so already, check her out.
Her YouTube Channel
Safiya Nygaard left Buzzfeed in late January 2017, for reasons that she explains in a video on her YouTube channel. She essentially wanted more communication with her fans and more personal responsibility and ownership over her content. It turns out that was a great decision on her part, because it led to a channel full of videos we may not have gotten otherwise.
Her viewership grows every day, but right now, she has nearly 9 million subscribers. Fans can choose from a hefty number of videos, as there are currently over 100 available, and she uploads a new one every few weeks.
The videos are funny because of Nygaard’s unapologetic personality and her straight-faced dry humor, but also because of her entertaining and unnecessary word choice (if you know, you know). She’s very open about things (like normalizing periods), we get a glimpse into her relationship (and the most beautiful wedding video) and much more. It’s a breath of fresh air compared to a lot of channels that are popular right now.
She has a few unofficial series on her channel, including, but not limited to, experimenting with weird fashion, following tutorials and everyone’s favorite, bad makeup science.
The most popular video on her channel, which has over 27 million views, concerns what she has dubbed “bad makeup science.” This video, and the others like it, provides viewers with oddly satisfying clips of makeup being cut up, mixed together, destroyed and even turned into a new creation.
In the aforementioned video, she and her now-husband, Tyler, purchased, cut and melted over 600 lipsticks from Sephora to see what the end product would be. About 500 lucky viewers actually received one of the lipsticks that they made in this video, so it was cool to see how she involved her fans in this one.
Bad makeup science has inspired more random mixing videos. Nygaard has continued to please her viewers by mixing every candle from Bath and Body Works (I swear, you can almost smell the mixture as you’re watching the video), and more recently, mixing every Lush bath bomb. It’s chaotic in the best way possible to watch the destruction and final product that results from these experiments.
Because of the internet’s latest obsession with oddly satisfying clips, it makes sense that this is some of Nygaard’s most popular content, but it’s certainly not the only type of video on her channel. Other videos that are prominent are fashion videos.
You can’t really predict what comes out of Nygaard’s fashion videos, but they’re always on point and sometimes over the top. In multiple videos, she tests out questionable clothing pieces from apparel sites, then she wears what she got for a week before giving her honest opinion. These are much more enjoyable reviews than something you’d find typed up on a website and rated on a five-star scale.
There’s too much on her channel to list it all, but it’s safe to say there’s something for everyone. Despite the large range of content, you can count on a well thought out format in each video.
Her Formula
One of the best things about Nygaard’s channel is the organized structure of her videos. No matter what the topic is, you can expect her to cover all of the bases within her videos, leaving almost no questions unanswered. They’re all organized well enough that it gives you a glimpse into her video production background. It’s a clear indicator that she puts a great deal of time and effort into what she puts out there.
First, the introduction is always to the point and informative, as she gives you an idea of what to expect. Depending on the topic, she will provide clips involving a quick overview of the topic at hand.
Even if you’re not familiar with what you’re about to watch, the crash course in the introduction should set you up fairly well. This also continues within the videos, as there are often sidebars with extra information, or other details that enhance the video. She could just leave it at the bare minimum, but she doesn’t.
The middle section varies based on the subject matter, but the structure is present nonetheless. In the videos where she wears a certain style of clothes for a week straight, she’ll provide clips from those seven days. You get a true glimpse of a week of her activities without being overloaded with unnecessary clips.
Nygaard always sums it up well, too. She’ll often quickly summarize what you watched, then give her thoughts and opinions on the experience and how it may affect her in the future.
The videos always come full circle. Though they’re not always the same, you can rest assured that the videos won’t be an unorganized jumble of clips. They are always products reviewed with an attentive eye before being uploaded.
You Should Check Her Out
This article would be tens of thousands of words long if I could describe all of the greatness found on Nygaard’s channel, but for now, I’ll settle for scratching the surface. She is an incredibly dedicated, talented and genuine YouTuber that everyone should check out.
She took the risk when she left what was seemingly a secure job at Buzzfeed to make her own channel, and it paid off. Though we can expect to see fashion, beauty and random experiments on her channel, she’s proven that we can always be surprised, too.
